Myanmar's Economic Growth Struggles Amidst Conflict

Economic growth in Myanmar is projected to be around 1% for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, according to the World Bank. Factors such as escalating violence, labor shortages, and currency depreciation are making business operations challenging. The revised projection is due to persistent high inflation and constraints on labor, foreign exchange, and electricity.

Economic growth in conflict-torn Myanmar will be around 1% for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the World Bank said on Wednesday, as escalating violence, labour shortages and a depreciating currency make it harder to do business. In December, the World Bank had projected Myanmar's economy would grow by around 2% during the period, after estimated GDP growth of 1% in the fiscal year that ended in March 2024.

"The downward revision in projected growth for FY2024/25 is largely due to the persistence of high inflation and constraints on access to labour, foreign exchange, and electricity, all of which are likely to have larger impacts on activity than was previously expected," the World Bank said in a report. The Southeast Asian country of about 55 million people has been in political and economic turmoil since a 2021 coup when the military ousted an elected civilian government, ending a decade of tentative democratic and economic reform.